Optimal refrigeration for foods

I guess that 33 degrees might be the best temp for bevvies. I could see that not being the case too though very easily.

What about leftovers such as Chinese food, pizza, Indian, thai etc?

What about vegetables? Which vegetables are the bottom bins made to hold optimally used?

Should cold cuts in plastic be contained in a small bin?

Where is best or butter, and bread?

I think up to 40 degrees is ok for the fridge section. The problem is most fridges temp controls are not accurate or easily understood. Get a free standing thermometer.
Meat on the highest shelf.
Bottom bins should be for veggies of any kind. Bread and butter do not need refrigeration. IMO

Our fridge is set at 3C - seems to work fine for everything except that white wine comes out too cold and has to be allowed to warm up a bit. The fridge has a fan so all shelves are pretty even, but the drawers at the bottom are a bit warmer (or less cold?) for veggies.

Meat freezes at a little before the freezing temp of water, due to dissolved salts, etc. Meat keeps best just barely above its freezing point. (And keeps even better if frozen and kept very cold, but freeze/thaw cycles are bad for it.) Fruits and veggies want to be a little warmer, but it depends on the specific plant. Strawberries and tomatoes will go longer without rotting if you refrigerate them, but both lose flavor when you take them from the field and chill them. (If you but them at a market, they’ve already been chilled. But if you’ve grown them, or bought “pick your own” you may have noticed the flavor loss.) If you actually freeze lettuce, say, you will kill the cells and destroy the quality. And because the leaf is alive, if you keep it cool and moist it will keep pretty well.

I dunno, probably about 40F for produce and 33F for meat?

Note: all temperatures in the below are in fahrenheit.

Some produce is happier out of the refrigerator altogether.

Tomatoes, eggplant, winter squash, sweet potatoes, basil, and some others shouldn’t be stored below 55º; which is way way too warm for meat and milk. If you’ve got meat and/or milk in the fridge it should be below 40º; and most leafy greens, herbs (but not the basil!), cabbage family vegetables, and some others are happy that cold also – some of them will tolerate colder than others.

Storing basil too cold will turn it black and yucky, sweet potatoes and winter squash will rot a lot faster, eggplant will discolor and turn bitter, tomatoes as has been said will lose flavor. (You can refrigerate any of those after they’ve been cooked, though. At that point they’re no longer alive and the cold won’t affect them in the same way.) While just over 55º would be best (at least presuming the sweet potatoes and squash have been previously properly cured at higher temperatures), too warm is better than too cold: room temperature is much better than the fridge.

Garlic stores best with good air circulation. If it’s been stored cold for a long time, it won’t keep once it’s warmed up; but if it hasn’t been in cold storage, it’ll probably keep longest out of the refrigerator and somewhere with good air circulation. If you buy the stuff at a standard grocery store, though, it’s probably been held in cold storage quite a while and then shipped cold and then been put out on a shelf at warmer temperatures, and won’t keep very long no matter what you do.

Some things, such as peppers and summer squash, are actually happier somewhere inbetween 40º and 55º+; but there’s a limit to what it’s practical for most people to provide. Unless your house runs quite chilly, I’d put those in the refrigerator drawer.

The reason you get two refrigerator drawers is that some fruits give off ethylene gas, and some vegetables are sensitive to it and may have their flavor ruined. Other fruits and vegetables are neutral on the subject. You can look up a chart if you’re fussy; or you can just put fruit in one drawer and vegetables in the other, which will mostly work.

There’s a swypo in my post, I meant to say “Meat freezes at a little below the freezing temp of water,…”

And like thorny locust, I keep my basil, tomatoes, winter squash, onion, garlic, and shallots, and bananas at room temp. (I am allergic to eggplant, so I’ve never worried about storing it.) I keep peppers, celery, greens (other than basil), summer squash, and most fruit in the fridge. Unless I want the fruit to ripen further, in which case I keep it in a paper bag at room temp.

Milk keeps best just above freezing. Same with meat. Same too for cooked leftovers, including takeout Chinese, pizza, etc.

Butter keeps longer in the fridge, but people who eat it quickly often leave it on the counter – it keeps reasonably well at room temp, and if you consume it in a week or two the convenience of softer butter outweighs the difference in shelf-life to many. I’ve never refrigerated bread. I freeze it for long-term storage, but I’ve always left it on the counter otherwise. I suspect the changing moisture in the fridge isn’t good for it.

Generally speaking, 36F is pretty ideal. At 40, you risk bacteria growth in food closest to the door. At 33, you risk freezing food at the back of the fridge.

Our old fridge had the plastic dial that just had numbers 1-10 on it. I liked to keep it on 4 because it would keep the milk oh-so-cold. My wife would complain that the eggs keep getting frozen. :smiley:

Our new Samsung fridge has a digital setting which only goes to 33F. Milk too warm! :frowning:

However, I have noticed that it does a better job of keeping a consistent temperature throughout. Nothing ever freezes. Did I mention the milk is too warm?

If the milk is too warm at 33F, I suggest that the thermostat is faulty. One degree less and it would freeze. Can you put a thermometer in there to check it?

Here is a really cheap one :https://www.amazon.com/Taylor-3507-TruTemp-Refrigerator-Thermometer/dp/B01LXEZKTL/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_79_lp_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=M67EWAN47FGZDBMKDV27